It's been some time since I last listened to this score...boy, what a great score this is. (Not that I need to tell you guys that!)

While I probably don't have enough Goldsmith scores to make a sound judgment, I find this score is one of Goldsmith's most inventive, thematically rich, orchestrally varied and downright awesome scores.

It's been some time since I last listened to this score...boy, what a great score this is. (Not that I need to tell you guys that!)

While I probably don't have enough Goldsmith scores to make a sound judgment, I find this score is one of Goldsmith's most inventive, thematically rich, orchestrally varied and downright awesome scores.

This one should have been the Oscar Winner back in '83.

CK

Have you seen the Goldsmith 'Film Music Masters' DVD where he talks about this score? Apparently he was playing solitaire on his computer for three days while 'absorbing by osmosis' (to quote the documentary) various Chilean and Andean music. A strange way of doing things, but it obviously worked. And you are right - Under Fire should have won the fecking Oscar!!

p.s. I find your comment about not having enough Goldsmith soundtracks to make a sound judgement on this subject quite surprising. Just how many do you have? While I've got so many that I lost count (I think it's somewhere around 75, give or take a few), I don't have Under Fire so that's at least one soundtrack you've got that this Goldsmith fanatic doesn't have.

To me this was the best he ever did. It's my favorite Goldsmith album, and quite unique among his works, as so many scores from the first half of his career were.

The movie was a critical success in the fall of 1983 and as I recall did good business theatrically- today nobody recalls it! I do see it as one of his last great scores in the twilight of his best period, and I really ought to listen to it again- Thanks for picking my drive to work cd for tomorrow, folks.

It's been some time since I last listened to this score...boy, what a great score this is. (Not that I need to tell you guys that!)

While I probably don't have enough Goldsmith scores to make a sound judgment, I find this score is one of Goldsmith's most inventive, thematically rich, orchestrally varied and downright awesome scores.

This one should have been the Oscar Winner back in '83.

CK

Hey buddy!

Yes, it truly is one of his greats. Back in 1999 this was one of my Holy Grails to find on CD and I located a copy from France. You do NOT want to know what I paid for this, at the time, extremely rare and sought after score. And then, just a few years later, along with The Twilight Zone: The Movie, it was re-released. My common sense took a beating that day.

It is truly one of his masterpieces. The last cue alone is worth the price of this.

How are things in Bavaria, by the way? You know, I haven't even emailed you in a while to catch up on things. I have to rectify that problem soon!

A Goldsmith masterpiece. Perhaps his all-time best blending of orchestral and electronic textures, plus one of his most soaring, rapturous love themes. Why, oh why didn't they use Drew Struzan's beautiful poster/CD artwork for the DVD?

The late Pauline Kael, legendary waspish and indomitable film critic for the New Yorker, called Goldsmith's score one of the best scores she ever heard (I find it hard to disagree).

And, yes, that Oscar should have nestled in Goldsmith's hands on the night. Bill Conti's The Right Stuff was fine, but it didn't have the pure invention and art (if I can use that word) that Under Fire's score did.

i just played it yesterday, on of my cds that gets more listenings a year than others

but this time it was not the "rollercoaster ride" than usual, just for one reason: hearing music by this genius makes his departure more and more tragic, tragic, because we never get such clever, inventive and beautiful music again

... unfortuntely most of the new scores/composers did not reach this quality for me, i bought less than 4-5 "new" scores a year, there where times i bought 30-40 a year, but nowadays i am more than gratefull, that labels like intrada or FSM releases music from the past

just got the new "Tombstone" and it reminds me of the "better days", even if this is only 13 years ago.

Hearing music by this genius makes his departure more and more tragic, tragic, because we never get such clever, inventive and beautiful music again.

Today I received a copy of Goldsmith's expanded Extreme Prejudice soundtrack. The director has a say in the liner notes, and the last sentence says 'Rest in Peace' (the note was written in November 2004, after Goldsmith's passing). As I have done numerous times in the past twenty-one months I stopped what I was doing and wept. While it has been a fair amount of time since Jerry's passing, the pain hasn't gone away, and I don't think it will. I took what happened far too personally. So I agree that his passing was tragic, and that we won't here the level of invention he invested in a film score ever again.

Unfortunately most of the new scores/composers did not reach this quality for me, i bought less than 4-5 "new" scores a year, there where times i bought 30-40 a year, but nowadays i am more than gratefull, that labels like intrada or FSM releases music from the past

just got the new "Tombstone" and it reminds me of the "better days", even if this is only 13 years ago.

Perhaps i am getting old

You're not getting old! I'm only 22, and share your view. In the same director note mentioned above, the director recounts the last conversation he had with Jerry Goldsmith, in which the composer laments the quality of today's film music. So if Jerry Goldsmith can lament the situation, you and I can too!

and i forget to mention, that mr goldsmith music is always on an intelligent level, you have to listen carefully and his music keeps my brain working, something that many composers don't reach (for me), even mr. williams (compared to mr. goldsmith output under this premise), although i like his music very much, perhaps it's because of "not always easy listening" to goldsmiths music, it's the complexity found in his scores like "total recall", the much underrated "hollow man" or the complex structure of "night crossing"'s finale.

I listened to Under Fire as my drive to work cd this a.m. and only got through the first five cues, but I concur that it is one of Goldsmith's best 80's scores. Really ethnically evocative material. This was the type of top grade film Goldsmith needed to score more often. I think even John Simon, one of Goldsmith's biggest detractors praised it. Thanks for reminding me how good this is.